One of my interests is making videos of flying birds. There the 50fps (PAL) as opposed to 25fps really matters and I only need to burn the files to disk and watch them on a flat-screen TV with an Blu-ray player or Sony PS3 connected.

What I want to do is to edit AVCHD 720p 50fps 1506 kbps files from my GH2 and creating an output file with the edits and the same quality and speciifications (format) as the input file. The edits I want to do are brightness and contrast and if possible color correction, cutting and joining. I am aware that transcoding to an editing format and back to the original format most likely will be nessesary

I use Windows Vista 64bit on an Intel 4 core computer with 4GB RAM.

I have tried several programs and program combinations (free or below 200$) but always something has not been as I wanted, mainly the framerate has been lowered to 25fps.

I believe that Adobe Premiere Pro can do this but I cannot test it since the trial version does not support AVCHD and I am not prepared to pay about a 1000$ just for finding out that it cannot be done after all.

I would recommend anyway (some will disagree on that) that you convert the AVCHD to an editable lossless format. Avoid editing in AVCHD despite being tempting and straighforward.

As Chris Sanderson pointed here several times, there are extra steps in video that seem pointless but indeed that are problems and time savers.

With the computer you have you are unfortunatly on the limit. 720 would work on the edge but you'll see that above it would not work properly.

I have to point, having both in a similar pc as yours, that AVID MC5 manage the memory much better that Premiere. The consequence is that I can edit files (and preview them properly) that I can't with Premiere.I have no idea how does that works because I'm not computer engineer, but AVID is way more workable when you are short on computer performance.

Ps: despite being less "user friendly", at least at first, I must admit that AVID is not kidding when it comes to NLE. Maybe because of the long experience they have on that, but if you pass the learning curve it just feels that this is the tool.

To KeithThank you for the suggestion but it cannot be done in Premiere Elements 9. PE 9 can import AVCHD files but it cannot code an output file in AVCHD format. Neither is it possible to create another output format file as 720p 50fps as far as I know.

To fredjeangUnfortunately, you cannot download a trial version of AVID MC5 and I am not going to spend more money than I allready have without being dead certain that the software will do the job.

What I really need is a step by step description of a method from somebody who has actually done what I need. I would be very grateful.

When I wrote "it can, it can" I was refering to your question about Premiere Pro, not the elements. The CS5 version and maybe the CS4 but I'm not sure about this last one.The issue to me with CS5 is the memory you have now.I mean, I have it and on a computer that has exactly the same memory as yours and it's simply not working properly.In Adobe, I have to use the CS3 to stay in the computer's power and edit at ease but this older version does not allow native AVCHD editing.And be carefull, if you install a newer CS, you can't go backwards to previous versions. All your editing would be lost.

Keep in mind that prices of Avid MC5 and CS5 are about the same. If you are used to Premiere the natural step is to stay where you know and do not loose more time in more learning curve.

The steps are dead easy, simply do what Keith pointed on the jpeg and you're done. Import the files and ready to work.

Your issue won't be the how but the machine itself. First read well the adobe mimimum specifications for the computer and see if that's worth.

Otherwise, a lot of users would convert AVCHD to a format that you could work with.

I know Chris Sanderson works also with your camera, and if my memory does not fail, he doesn't edit in AVCHD but convert them.

Edius products are very good. I have Edius 6 and it's really good. The spirit is different, it's Thomson and their target is more people that work in multicam configuration, little TV channels etc... The way you work with it is very fast, it's a time saver. I heard about many people in specialized forums that gave-up Premiere and FCP after having worked with Edius.

If your aim is documentary, news, stuff like that, going Edius is not a bad idea at all.

According to these 2 month old quotes from the Lightworks forum: "There is no direct support for AVCHD codec, in any of its flavours, in current LW Beta" and "...but the Lightworks developers are working on this question of codecs as we speak".

So maybe this can be the way for me to go in a not too distant future.

The format is highly compressed and image quality is very good. I can store about half an hour of HD video on a standard one sided DVD formatted as an AVCHD disc. You need a Blu-ray player (or a Sony PS3) for playback, though. The AVCHD DVD cannot be read by a standard DVD player.

AVCHD is a record and playback format. Check AVCHD in Wickipedia. Due to the very high compression of the video files, editing without transcoding to a less compressed format powerful hardware is necessary, however.

To Les:

On your suggestion I tried the trial version of Edit Pro 17. Unfortunately, it cannot output 720p 50fps, only 720p 25fps (PAL).

To Fred:

On your suggestion I tried the trial version of Edius 6. It turned out that with it I can create 720p 50fps AVCHD videofiles. I cannot create AVCHD DVD's from within Edius but that I can do by importing the videos from Edius into the free multiAVCHD program (very good). I then tried the trial version of Edius Neo 3 (about a third of the price of Edius 6) and it turned out that I could do what I needed with that program. So for now I will use Edius Neo 3+multiAVCHD.

Thank you very much all for your suggestions and commentaries. Now I am really fed up with testing NLE editors and will get on with video editing.

I think that Edius should be more known. Grass Valley do very good products. Edius is a very efficient tool and the thing is that they just do that, not like another branch between the zillionth activities of huge company so they are very closed to the videographers real needs. Many local TVs edit with it and some large structures also. It's serious stuff.